Post the Seventy-Ninth: In Which The Women Come and Go

Gentle Reader, I was made aware of a large gap in my education this Friday. I had never seen the 1939 MGM classic The Women. Like MGM’s other big hit that year, it features a transition between black and white and color, and stars some of the biggest female stars of the time period – Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell,  Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine – on and on and on! So my dear friend Miss Goss and I decided to liveblog the experience on Twitter.

First, I naturally had to dress for the occasion. Luckily, I had just acquired my grandmother’s ruffly peignoir.

And away we went!

 

It was at this point, during the opening credits, that I opened the first bottle of wine.

All of this was from the first half hour or so. We haven’t even gotten into the meat of the matter, really, not yet.

Oh, right. The fashion show scene is in color! All the glamorous outfits and awful hats! And I didn’t even NOTICE until right before we went back to black and white. Whoops. Sorry, artists who worked very hard for Technicolor all those years ago!

So, after the divorce – possibly to get the divorce? – our protagonist and her daughter move to Reno, Nevada, which is apparently entirely populated by divorcées. They also meet my favorite character, the Countess.

The Countess is basically me – always whining dramatically about “L’amour! L’amour – toujours l’amour!” and jumping at any chance to have a drink. But she’s a Countess, so it’s charming. She’s terrific.

 

And I hope you enjoyed this recap! I highly recommend this film to anyone with a pulse – there was just really too much wonderful stuff, such witty quips and one-liners – I couldn’t capture them all. Drop what you’re doing, and go watch it now!

Tagged: Classic Films, HOLY SHIT that is a lot of screencaps y'all, L'amour - L'amour! Toujours l'amour!, Liveblogging, Reno Jumpywumps, The Women, Twitter